Persistence, luck brought Evers case to a close

In 1989, according to Clarion-Ledger reports, secret files showed that at the same time the state was prosecuting Byron De La Beckwith in 1964 for Evers’ murder, another arm of the state was secretly assisting Beckwith’s defense, trying to get him acquitted. That other arm was the state’s segregationist spy agency, the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission, which was headed by the governor.